Saturday, 6 June 2015

Proper Woolly? Proper Amazing!

What an amazing show! For those of you that attend Wonder Wool or Yarndale then you may not be as impressed as I was, but, as I'm someone who can't manage to attend those shows, it was truly amazing! So much fibre and yarn in one place - I really was a child in a sweet shop!

It was lovely chatting to so many people who shared my passion and I was given some good advice in fibre preparation as well as making some new contacts.

I bought some fabulous prepared fibre. This tops is a John Arbon merino tops with a pretty blend of greens and a hint of mustard.

This one, also from John Arbon, is a merino zwarbtles blend.

This fibre came from The Threshing Barn and is a Blue Faced Leicester and seacell tops.

I have already started spinning it and love the subtle colour changes. It always surprises me how colours can change once spun.

This is a merino and silk blend of very muted tones and is beautiful when spun.

I also bought two raw fleeces: a lincoln longwool and a Lleyn cross Jacob which is very soft and pretty.

A gentleman at the show had been asked by his wife to make a fringe twister and it was so successful he decided to make some to sell.

At only £15 and made from recycled oak saved from going in a wood burner this was a real bargain. I have requested some wraps per inch gauges from him too.Ok, I'm not being completely honest about all my purchases! There was a big one, a very special one, of an item which I have coveted for some time. I have a big zero birthday coming up this year and I have been asking for one of these for all the shows and travelling that I do currently with my Ashford traveller, which is a little on the heavy side when having to cart across a show ground along with my daughter's wheel and other miscellaneous equipment and fibre. And so here is my birthday present...

Tah dah!!!An Ashford Joy 2, a simply beautiful wheel and a pleasure to spin and transport. How lucky and grateful am I to my amazingly understanding husband? Exceptionally!I'm not sure how successful the show was for the traders. It was the first here in the South West of England, but I suspect we simply don't have the population of people to warrant the money that the traders spent in travel and accommodation costs. There were also a lot of traders selling the same thing and so if your stand was near the end you may have lost out to other traders who had taken all the sales first.

Anyway, from my point of view it was simply brilliant and I can only hope that they repeat it next year.